CLAHRC North Thames has joined forces with colleagues at PenCLAHRC to bring their successful ‘Searching and Beyond’ workshop developed by information professionals for information professionals to London.

Systematic reviews are an essential component of evidence based health care and the number being undertaken is increasing.

PenCLAHRC’s popular workshop has been redesigned with an exciting new online element followed by a day of discussion and participation on how our skills as information professionals can be used in carrying out a systematic review.

The online modules will require around 5 hours of your time prior to attending the workshop and will include videos and learning activities. We hope they will make you think of questions to bring along to the face-to-face workshop which will involve discussion, demonstration, practical work and participation.

The workshop includes:

Systematic reviews in context;

Systematic review search methods:

Grey literature searching

Search filters;

Updating searches;

Reference management

Protocols

Screening

Data extraction and critical appraisal

Synthesis

Reporting

Writing

This one day, hands-on, interactive workshop offers librarians and other information professionals the chance to discover more about the systematic review process and how they can utilise many of the skills they already have within a systematic review. The workshop may also be of interest to researchers who have database searching experience and are keen to fine-tune their skills in both searching and reference management specific to systematic reviews.

Developed by: Evidence Synthesis Team, PenCLAHRC at the University of Exeter Medical School, in collaboration with clinical librarians at the Knowledge Spa, Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust.

The Centre is funded by Barts Charity and based within Queen Mary University of London at the Whitechapel campus.

The centre team (pictured above) will focus on improving the health of mothers and babies in East London, addressing healthcare challenges such as diabetes, obesity and heavy blood loss during childbirth.

The first BARC study is set to start in January 2018 – “EMmY: Effectiveness and acceptability of myo-inositol nutritional supplement in the prevention of gestational diabetes: a pilot placebo controlled double blind randomised trial”.

EmMY will aim to randomise 200 women who are at risk of developing gestational diabetes, across three sites (Barts Health, Guy’s and St Thomas’, and Central Manchester University NHS Trusts).

Participants will be randomised to receive either 4g of Myo-inositol – a naturally occurring substance produced in the human body that belongs to the vitamin B complex group – or placebo study supplement daily, from the end of the first trimester until delivery.

The pilot will examine rates of recruitment and randomisation to the trial, and rates of adherence to the intervention. Researchers will analyse reasons for participation, non-participation, and non-adherence to the trial protocol. Any preliminary estimates and insight into trial procedures from the EMmY study will then inform a future large-scale trial.

The CLAHRC is supporting the study by providing health economic analysis for the pilot and full trial and assisting with patient and public involvement..

Islington Council, Islington Clinical Commissioning Group, North East London Commissioning Support Unit, and the CLAHRC, have been granted an award for a project which aims to create a linked data-set between NHS and a local government data for households across Islington.

Local authorities hold data on their residents in terms of social care, housing, early years settings, education and crime. All of these are important to health: and in turn affected by health.

Linking local government information with health data offers an opportunity to better understand the local population’s combined health and social needs and to improve health and wellbeing in the widest sense across the Borough.

We would be able to answer questions such as:

What are local pattern of health and social risk factors for homelessness at a household level?

How could we best target prevention services and support to households at high risk of homelessness?

Marissa won best poster presentation when she showcased her work to delegates during the conference (below) – her research focus is assessing whether pharmacists are a suitable delivery channel for an intervention aimed at asthma patients to improve their adherence to preventer inhalers.

Marissa in action at the ASM

Our congratulations to Marissa on her prize.

Marissa’s fellow CLAHRC PhD Caroline Katzer, who is developing and evaluating an intervention to improve adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in adult asthma patients also showcased her work at the conference via both a poster and an oral presentation, which generated a lot of discussion, and was among those complimented on the quality of her presentations.

A new piece in Open Access Governmenthighlights the scale and scope of the work of our funder the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

In its role as the “research arm of the NHS” the NIHR’s mission is to improve both the health and wealth of the UK by means of research. A piece by Jonathan Miles (Editor, Open Access Government) gives a great overview of the work of the NIHR, and how it works with charities, industry and other sectors.

There are also a couple of examples of the groundbreaking and impactful research funded by the NIHR and the difference it is making – read the piece below.

CLAHRC researcher Dr Victoria Wood is among those presenting at an upcoming conference on “nurse specialing” – the continuous presence of a member of the nursing team for a single patient. Registration is now open for the event on Friday February 9th, hosted by our partners at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Some patients admitted to hospitals may have increased confusion, delirium, and dementia or be at risk of harm from falling or leaving the ward unsafely. Other patients may present with mental health needs that require additional therapeutic care to support and maintain safety of the patient and staff and reduce risk while in hospital.

Dr Wood is one of our Embedded Research Team (ERT) based within UCLH. The ERT works closely with staff and leaders across the Trust to improve patient care and provide research evidence that staff and management can use when planning and designing services. Victoria carried out a Rapid Appraisal study of Specialling and Nurse Specials and will share her learning about the appraisal, and speak about demystifying research for NHS staff.